I own a 2000 Chrysler 300m, and have been driving it daily for the past three years. The car had 102,000 miles when I bought it, it now has 158,000. About three months ago, at 154,000 miles, the driver side wheel bearing began to hum. Shortly after, before i was able to fix the bearing, the ball joint on the passenger side snapped. I had it towed in to a shop, and the mechanic told me I needed a ball joint as well as a new CV axle. The total for this repair was $432, $150 for labor, as well as $155 for the ball joint and $108 for the CV axle. The mechanic didn’t fix the wheel bearing on the other side, and I took the car back as it was because I needed transportation. when he returned the car, he told me that I needed the same thing done on the other side, but that I had a month or so to do it. A week later, the wheel bearing broke on the driver side, and I returned the car to him. This time he charged me $665, $200 for labor, $97 for the bearing assembly, $108 for another CV axle, $115 for two outer tie rods, $32 for new caliper bolts, and $68 for new tie rod sleeves. when I got the car back, he told me I needed an alignment, and to go someplace else and get one. I drove the car and it rode the same as it did before, so I didn’t get the alignment. Three months later, I have put only 4000 miles on the car and the passenger side ball joint and CV axle just broke again. The mechanic says that this is because I didn’t get the alignment, but I’m not so sure. I’ve driven cars that needed to be aligned before, and never had any ball joints break as a result. I think that he may have not put it on right, or missed something else that caused the problem. Is it likely that needing an alignment would cause a ball joint to break this quickly, on only one side, or is this guy trying to hose me?
Failure to perform an alignment will not cause a ball joint to break. That is an utter crock.
In such a short time, there are only a few reasons for a new ball joint to break and that would the car being pounded to death on extremely rough roads or he used an inferior no-name, or white box, ball joint. This would mean some cheap Chinese part from eBay or something like that.
From the price quoted it sounds like the entire control arm was replaced.
It’s stated the joint “broke”. Have you looked at this yourself? Maybe broke is not the operative word and the joint came apart (same results) because someone did not tighten a pinch bolt, overtightened a pinch bolt and stripped the threads which could then lead to the bolt falling out, etc.
Without seeing the damage or pics of the damage it’s difficult to say what happened but not doing an aligment did not cause this.
I’m assuming it flat out snapped, because both times the front of the car was sitting on top of the tire, and I wasn’t able to push it or move it. I guess it could have possibly came apart and fell off.
The car hasn’t been off roading or anything, and I’m not really very hard on it. highway and city miles around town only. I’m wondering if he possibly went to the junkyard and put a used part on it?
anyhow, he’s trying to charge me for labor again, and said he has to check if the part is covered under warranty even though it says right on the receipt lifetime warranty.
There are only 2 ways a ball joint can separate.
One is that the threaded ball stud pulls out of the socket. This is manufactured as a unit and if it separates that is a legitimate failure.
Two is if the threaded ball stud pulls out of the steering knuckle that it fits into. If this happens then that is caused by the person failing to perform the job properly. If that’s the case the repair should be on the mechanic, not you.
As to parts warranty that applies to parts only; it never covers labor no matter what.
The part I don’t like here is the bit about laying the blame on failure to get an alignment done. That is ludicrous and a statement like that is based on sheer ignorance or a mechanic who has gone into CYA (cover your axx) mode. Either one is reason to avoid them.